Helpore Research
Home nursing up 44%, household and social support down 5%: how home care changed in Switzerland, 2019 to 2024
From 2019 to 2024, billed nursing hours rose in every canton, while household and social support hours fell in 15 of 26 cantons.
Spitex is the Swiss name for home help and home nursing services. The figures count the hours that all Spitex providers billed: non profit, public and commercial organisations and self employed nurses. Nursing means the federal category long term care. In the federal survey, household and social support covers housework such as cleaning, laundry, ironing, shopping and preparing meals, social support such as accompanying someone to the shops, and night watches at home.
The canton picture
See what changed where
Select a service and a canton. The map shows the percentage change in billed hours from 2019 to 2024.
Switzerland, −5.2% household and social support hours from 2019 to 2024
© swisstopo
View the complete 26 canton tableHide the complete canton table
| Canton | Nursing 2019 | Nursing 2024 | Nursing change | Household and social support 2019 | Household and social support 2024 | Household and social support change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZH · Zurich | 2'685'577 | 4'975'329 | +85.3% | 1'246'962 | 1'231'746 | −1.2% |
| BE · Bern | 2'685'355 | 3'076'298 | +14.6% | 501'081 | 382'593 | −23.6% |
| LU · Lucerne | 684'237 | 933'337 | +36.4% | 373'125 | 324'596 | −13.0% |
| UR · Uri | 39'260 | 63'184 | +60.9% | 12'769 | 13'057 | +2.3% |
| SZ · Schwyz | 188'623 | 282'124 | +49.6% | 69'706 | 92'950 | +33.3% |
| OW · Obwalden | 46'395 | 52'665 | +13.5% | 11'593 | 10'280 | −11.3% |
| NW · Nidwalden | 63'200 | 73'255 | +15.9% | 27'858 | 38'075 | +36.7% |
| GL · Glarus | 55'118 | 82'025 | +48.8% | 16'630 | 15'364 | −7.6% |
| ZG · Zug | 122'837 | 186'379 | +51.7% | 102'966 | 115'686 | +12.4% |
| FR · Fribourg | 555'768 | 768'355 | +38.3% | 149'924 | 165'113 | +10.1% |
| SO · Solothurn | 481'208 | 671'923 | +39.6% | 169'669 | 143'528 | −15.4% |
| BS · Basel-Stadt | 562'191 | 691'944 | +23.1% | 364'524 | 236'979 | −35.0% |
| BL · Basel-Landschaft | 603'261 | 982'064 | +62.8% | 357'701 | 449'968 | +25.8% |
| SH · Schaffhausen | 141'793 | 198'088 | +39.7% | 69'197 | 57'959 | −16.2% |
| AR · Appenzell Ausserrhoden | 62'055 | 108'574 | +75.0% | 28'763 | 30'303 | +5.4% |
| AI · Appenzell Innerrhoden | 19'587 | 35'216 | +79.8% | 7'331 | 6'964 | −5.0% |
| SG · St Gallen | 685'096 | 1'005'882 | +46.8% | 529'427 | 434'868 | −17.9% |
| GR · Graubünden | 341'959 | 433'666 | +26.8% | 177'136 | 155'548 | −12.2% |
| AG · Aargau | 1'019'626 | 1'604'679 | +57.4% | 464'441 | 398'441 | −14.2% |
| TG · Thurgau | 426'033 | 622'481 | +46.1% | 140'136 | 137'853 | −1.6% |
| TI · Ticino | 1'318'386 | 2'024'358 | +53.5% | 219'395 | 222'271 | +1.3% |
| VD · Vaud | 2'453'516 | 3'218'148 | +31.2% | 537'916 | 628'612 | +16.9% |
| VS · Valais | 575'897 | 985'266 | +71.1% | 204'018 | 220'511 | +8.1% |
| NE · Neuchâtel | 474'641 | 694'174 | +46.3% | 65'221 | 45'977 | −29.5% |
| GE · Geneva | 1'193'058 | 1'523'670 | +27.7% | 438'447 | 385'586 | −12.1% |
| JU · Jura | 276'329 | 343'918 | +24.5% | 65'491 | 75'900 | +15.9% |
6 observed years
The lines moved apart
Both lines start at 100 in 2019, so you compare change, not size. Pick a year to see the hours.
25.64 million nursing hours
6.02 million household and social support hours
“Staying at home takes more than nursing. It also takes the work of keeping a household running.”
Gilberto de la FuenteHelpore
Context
Carers day, 30 October
The intercantonal carers day takes place on 30 October 2026. This study adds a canton by canton view of the billed services already recorded in the federal Spitex statistics.
See the official programme from the Canton of Vaud (in French)Method and source
What the figures measure
Helpore compared billed long term nursing hours with billed household and social support hours for all provider types in every canton. Each canton counts the hours of providers based there, not where the client lives. The period is 2019 to 2024, the latest 6 calendar years available in the federal table.
The nursing hours are long term care hours under the health insurance rules (Art. 7 KLV), including basic care such as help with washing and dressing, but not acute and transitional care after a hospital stay.
Nursing hours are paid from a health insurance contribution per hour, a client share capped by law and residual financing under cantonal rules (Art. 25a KVG); household and social support hours are billed to the client, and the statistics record subsidies separately.
The figures describe recorded Spitex services. They do not measure the full household help market, unmet need or why the two services changed.
The figures use the federal table’s cantonal boundaries of 1 January 2023. The map uses swisstopo’s 2026 boundaries.
- Publisher: Swiss Federal Statistical Office
- Table status: 11 November 2025
- Coverage: Switzerland and all 26 provider cantons, all provider types, all ages and all sexes
- Measure: Billed hours in long term care and household and social support services
- Map boundaries: swisstopo, edition 2026
Data and downloads
Use the study data
The files use the same federal observations as the article, canton map and annual chart.
- Download the canton dataCSV · 2 KB
- Download the annual dataCSV · 174 B
- Download the data definitionsMD · 2 KB
- Download the methodMD · 2 KB
- Download the canton mapSVG · 74 KB
- Download the annual chartSVG · 4 KB
Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Clients and services of home help and care by provider type, canton, age class, sex, service offer, measure and year. Table status 11 November 2025.
The study text, the datasets we built and the charts we drew are under CC BY 4.0, so you may reuse them with attribution. The official source material stays under its own terms.
Cite this study
de la Fuente, Gilberto (2026). Home nursing up 44%, household and social support down 5%: how home care changed in Switzerland, 2019 to 2024. Helpore. https://www.helpore.com/en/blog/spitex-nursing-household-support-switzerland-2019-2024.